Yoshizawa was born in Tokyo, Japan on March 3, 1984[2] and made her first appearance as a gravure idol in the Kodansha company's Young Magazine(ヤングマガジン?) in 2002.[3] In February 2003 she posed for gravure photos by Hiroyuki Yoshida (吉田 裕之?) released as the photobook Akiho(あきほ?) (ISBN 978-4754215507).[4] A month later, Yoshizawa made her AV debut in March 2003 under contract to two studios, Alice Japan and Max-A.[5] Her first video as an AV performer, Angel, was released by the Alice Japan label in March 2003.[5] Her second video 18-Teens was made for the Max-A Samansa in April 2003, and she continued alternating performances between the two studios through the middle of 2006 usually making one movie a month.[6] Among her early videos was the July 2003 incest-themed My Sister Is an AV Idol for Alice Japan directed by sometimes mainstream director Rokurō Mochizuki.[7] For her work in her first year in AV, Yoshizawa was nominated for the Best New Actress Award at the 2003 X City Grand Prix Awards[8]

She also starred in the 2005 pink film Fascinating Young Hostess: Sexy Thighs which was ranked as the Best Film of the year at the 2006 Pink Grand Prix.[16] Yoshizawa won the third Best Actress award at the same ceremony for her role in the movie.[17] In an interview,[18] Yoshikawa said she first met the director of the movie, Tetsuya Takehora, when he directed her in a V-cinema production Erotic Fountain (エロビアの泉) for the TMC studio in 2006.[19] She was given a Best Actress award for her work in the pink film genre at the 2006 Pinky Ribbon Awards.[20]

In 2006 Yoshizawa starred in the historical costume drama set in the Edo period, The Inner Palace: Indecent War, released by Max-A under the DoraMax label in July 2006. In addition to the hardcore video (labeled DMX-001),[24][25] the movie was also released in a shorter softcore R-15 rated version (Pure Max PMX-005). A sequel The Inner Palace: Flower of War was also released in hardcore (DoraMax DMX-002)[26] and softcore (Pure Max PMX-006) versions.[citation needed]

By the end of 2006 Yoshizawa was no longer making adult videos for Alice Japan and Max-A and began working for two new AV companies, Maxing and S1 No. 1 Style.[6] She appeared in her first video for the new start-up studio Maxing, Sell Debut Love Acky,[27] in that company's first set of videos released on October 16, 2006.[28] She debuted with S1 in January 2007 with Hyper-Risky Mosaic Akiho Yoshizawa directed by Hideto Aki.[29] She has been active with both studios since, appearing in about one movie a month for both studios.[6]

Yoshizawa's work in AV for the 2007 year was acknowledged by several awards. One of her S1 videos, the May 2007 release Hyper Risky Mosaic - Special Bath House Tsubaki, featuring S1 stars Sora Aoi, Honoka, Yuma Asami and eight others was the studio's entry for the 2007 AV Open contest where it took the 1st Place Award.[30][31] Yoshizawa also won the Best Actress Award at the 2007 Vegas Night and her S1 video Hyper-Risky Mosaic Akiho Yoshizawa took the 2nd Place Award.[32] In another media, she was a nominee for the Best Actress Award for her 2007 appearances on adult Channel 902 (Midnight Blue) on satellite TV broadcaster SKY PerfecTV! at the 2008 Adult Broadcasting Awards ceremonies.[33] The next year, at the December 2008 Moodyz Awards, a competition among 37 AV production companies sponsored by Japan's largest AV distributor, the Hokuto Corporation, she won the 2nd Place award for Best Actress.[34]

In another genre, Yoshizawa played the female ninja (kunoichi) Kasumi in the erotic action V-Cinema September 2007 release Lady Ninja Kasumi Vol.4 (Kasumi: Tanjou! Sarutobi Sasuke) based on a manga by Youji Kanbayashi and Jin Hirano.[35]

In May 2008 she appeared in the mainstream science fiction comedy Shin supai gâru daisakusen known in English as Spy Girl's Mission Cord #005 where she played an evil alien seductress.[38][39] She had a major role as Makoto in the September 2008 mainstream drama Hanky-Panky Baby about a group of young people trying to make a movie.[40][41] It was also released as a DVD in November 2008.[42] According to an interview at the time of the movie's release, part of her character's experiences in the film overlapped with some of her own life. She also said she enjoyed acting in mainstream movies and TV but thought that her AV work was also important.[43]

Later that year, Yoshizawa starred as a woman driving a dekotora or "decorated truck" inherited from her father in the October 2008 action film Deco Truck Gal Nami.[44] The film spawned three V-cinema sequels starring Yoshizawa and "an entire genre of 'Lady Trucker' films in Japan."[45][46] An English-language version of the original film was released through Switchblade Pictures in December 2013 as Big Bad Mama-San – Dekotora 1.[45]

In an erotic manga-based V-cinema, the November 2008 TMC release Irokoishi : Horo-hen kabuki-cho zecchotaiketsu!! (艶恋師 放浪編 歌舞伎町 絶頂対決！！), Yoshizawa plays the heroine Rie. In this third installment in the Irokoishi series (called in English Irokoishi3: Wandering—Kabukicho Ecstasy Battle!!), Rie is the victim of erotic hypnosis by the evil Ishida and is rescued by the hero Kikunosuke using his superior sexual techniques.[47][48] Also in 2008, Yoshizawa starred as the title character in the V-cinema science-fiction fantasy Maid-Droid which was subsequently (January 2009) released theatrically by Shintōhō Eiga.[49] In 2010 Yoshizawa was selected to star in the inaugural episode in the "Scary Erotic Ghost Stories" (エロ怖い怪談?) series of videos combining horror and eroticism.[3]

Yoshizawa continued making AVs and at the end of 2010, she starred in her first 3D adult video, Maxing 3D! for the Maxing studio.[50] Adult videos in this format for the 3D televisions produced by Sony and Panasonic had first appeared in June 2010.[51] A month later, in January 2011, she appeared in another 3D video, 3D Evolution - New Dimension, this time for S1, which had pioneered the genre.[52]

When the major Japanese adult video distributor DMM held a poll of its customers in 2012 to choose the 100 all time best AV actresses to celebrate the 30th anniversary of adult videos in Japan, Yoshizawa finished in third place.[53] Yoshizawa's video for Maxing, Masochistic Lascivious Lady Akiho Yoshizawa, won the Best Program Award at the 2013 Adult Broadcasting Awards ceremony held in February 2013.[54]